FCC bows to criticism, updates broadband data collection policy

The FCC has admitted that its methodology for collecting and reporting on …

The FCC has been under attack for years by critics who claim that its broadband data collection methods are horribly flawed. And it's not just consumer groups that are upset; a report from the Government Accounting Office found significant problems with the FCC's methodology. This week, though, the FCC has undertaken a review of its data collection practices and finally looks set to make some important changes.

Depending on which commissioner you ask, these changes are of either minor or critical importance. Kevin Martin, the FCC's chairman, says that broadband in the US is swell, and it's growing at a significant rate. When it comes to data collection, the new Notice of Proposed Rulemaking will allow the agency to "gain an even better picture of broadband deployment in this country."

Commissioner Copps, one of the two Democrats, has a slightly different view of the situation. "Never in my wildest imagination did I believe that eleventh in the world would feel like the good old days," he said in a statement, referring to the level of broadband deployment in the US three years ago. "But it turns out that things could—and did—get worse." The International Telecommunications Union now rates the US number 15 in the world.

Copps goes on to argue that there's no good way to start fixing the problems until the FCC has better data, and he laments the fact that the agency has persisted in its current practices for nearly a decade. "This decade-long refusal to update our methodology is just not an acceptable outcome when we are, by statute, charged with encouraging the deployment of advanced communications services to all our citizens," he said.

The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking requests comments on how the FCC "can continue to acquire the information it needs to develop and maintain appropriate broadband policies." The document does recognize that increased reporting requirements translates into more money for the companies that have to collect and submit the data, and it explicitly seeks to find a balance "between the burden of additional data collection and the benefits such information provides."

Currently, the FCC breaks broadband down by ZIP code, and counts a ZIP code as being "served" if it has even a single broadband subscriber. It also sets the broadband threshold at an absurdly low level of 200kbps. The effect of these and similar policies has been to produce reports that make broadband access look almost universal in the US, which my rural relatives can attest is simply not the case.

The FCC's willingness to address the long-standing problem is a welcome one, but we will need to see exactly what their new system is before judging it an improvement over the current implementation.